Future Entrepreneur Summer Programme
Explore entrepreneurship by developing, testing, and pitching your own business idea with guidance from founders and industry professionals.
See what the experience is like
From idea to business
Are you ready to build a business from scratch?
Over two weeks at Imperial College London, you'll work alongside real founders and investors to take a business idea from nothing to a fully developed venture. You'll generate ideas, validate them against real markets, develop a business plan, and pitch to a panel of industry professionals. You'll visit real startups and innovation hubs in London, see how businesses operate from the inside, and hear directly from the people who built them. Every session is delivered by people who build companies for a living.
By the end of the programme, you'll know what it really takes to think and work like an entrepreneur, and whether this is a path you genuinely want to pursue. The programme concludes with the ProEd Field Project, a group research project designed to strengthen university applications, presented to external professionals. You leave with a ProEd certificate, a written Field Project report, and professional panel feedback.
Key highlights
Build & Test Your Business Idea
Generate your own business idea, test it against the market, and develop it using professional business frameworks.
Pitch to Real Founders
Put your idea to the test in a timed pitch and receive direct feedback from experienced founders and professionals.
Step Inside a London Startup
Visit a London startup, accelerator or innovation hub, spend time with founders and operators, and see how businesses work from the inside.
Take Your Idea to Market
Develop a marketing strategy, conduct live market research and explore how funding can help turn an early-stage idea into a viable business.
Programme timetable
Timetable is a guide only and may be subject to change.
How Empires Are Built
- Take apart a real company and understand how every part of a business connects
- Analyse a strategic opportunity and form your initial recommendation
- Structured public speaking and persuasion workshop
- Begin building the case you will present to a board panel on Day 3
Think Like a CFO
- Read company accounts the way a professional investor would
- Build your own financial statements and stress-test them under pressure
- Build the financial case for your strategic recommendation
- Uncover the cognitive biases that distort every business decision
The Art of the Deal
- Present your strategic recommendation to a board panel and defend it under questioning
- Negotiate a live business deal with confidential briefs and competing priorities
- Make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information under time pressure
- Compete in a team-based crisis simulation
From Zero to Startup
- Generate, test, and validate a real business idea from scratch
- Build your first business model using professional frameworks
- Deliver a timed pitch and receive honest feedback from a founder
Build the Machine
- Develop a full business plan with financial projections
- Explore funding routes: bootstrapping, angel investment, venture capital
- Navigate the legal and regulatory essentials every founder needs to know
Step into the Workplace
- Visit a London startup, accelerator, or innovation hub
- Spend the day with real founders and operators
- Pressure-test your business concept against professional reality
How Empires Are Built
- Take apart a real company and understand how every part of a business connects
- Analyse a strategic opportunity and form your initial recommendation
- Structured public speaking and persuasion workshop
- Begin building the case you will present to a board panel on Day 3
Think Like a CFO
- Read company accounts the way a professional investor would
- Build your own financial statements and stress-test them under pressure
- Build the financial case for your strategic recommendation
- Uncover the cognitive biases that distort every business decision
The Art of the Deal
- Present your strategic recommendation to a board panel and defend it under questioning
- Negotiate a live business deal with confidential briefs and competing priorities
- Make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information under time pressure
- Compete in a team-based crisis simulation
From Zero to Startup
- Generate, test, and validate a real business idea from scratch
- Build your first business model using professional frameworks
- Deliver a timed pitch and receive honest feedback from a founder
Build the Machine
- Develop a full business plan with financial projections
- Explore funding routes: bootstrapping, angel investment, venture capital
- Navigate the legal and regulatory essentials every founder needs to know
Step into the Workplace
- Visit a London startup, accelerator, or innovation hub
- Spend the day with real founders and operators
- Pressure-test your business concept against professional reality
The ProEd Field Project
The programme concludes with the ProEd Field Project, where students bring together what they have learned through a group research project, presented to a panel of external industry professionals.
Build Your Case
Develop a business-focused research project as a group, bringing together research, ideas and recommendations in a written report and final presentation.
Example: Explore a business opportunity and develop a case for how it could succeed. Research the market, consider the target audience, business model and funding options, and present your recommendations to a panel of industry professionals.
How It’s Supervised
Work with professional mentors to develop the project, prepare the written report, rehearse the presentation and get ready for challenging questions from the panel.
What's included
Included in the fee
Single room upgrade available at booking
Optional lunch vouchers can be booked for students attending all residential programmes. On-campus cafes and restaurants are available. However, they only accept payment cards and do not accept cash.
All day travel costs covered
test
Not included
Optional lunch vouchers can be booked for students attending all residential programmes. On-campus cafes and restaurants are available. However, they only accept payment cards and do not accept cash.
What past students say
Starts 19 Jul